“Did you go to the parade Sunday?” I asked the bank teller this afternoon while she deposited a few checks for me.
“No, we didn’t,” she said, “But I was thinking we should have…”
She was very warm and chatty.
I told her, “We went, but not just to watch the parade — we went to talk to people about St Patrick. Hardly anyone knows who he really was.”
She agreed and replied, “He wasn’t Irish, he was exiled to Ireland, or something like that.”
“Yes! he was captured as a slave and brought there, and then he escaped, but then went back as a missionary…” I told her.
“Well the Irish really like him!” she stated.
“Yeah,” I smiled, “well apparently Ireland was really dark at that time, but Patrick brought the gospel, and started a bunch of churches, and the gospel changed Ireland so much they still remember him today.”
“Yeah, we looked him up,” she said, “and yes—it sounded like he was as a missionary. But there’s really not that much information about him.”
“Well, it was a long time ago,” I said, “but the other night my dad was reading some of his writings—it sounds kind of like the Bible,” I smiled.
“You know what you would like?” she told me, “the BIBLE series on the History channel… we were watching that the other day. It’s really great.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about it,” I said.
“You know what I thought as I was watching it?” She said. “There was so much violence! I mean, it seems like God really lightened up when he had a kid.”
I laughed. “Yeah. Well it shows the rebellion in humanity …and it was God’s plan unfolding because the world needs a Savior—”
After speaking of the violence in the world some more, she said, “Well, one day God is going to judge.”
“Yeah that’s true!” I agreed.
“So it just comes down to ‘Are you a good person?’” she said soberly.
“Okay, so since you just said that I have to give you this,” I said, pulling an Are You A Good Person gospel comic tract out of my purse and handing it to her. “It explains how we have ALL broken God’s laws and that’s why we need a Savior…”
She began flipping through it and saw a picture of the KKK, Hitler, etc. She commented, “You know, with these people that are the worst of the worst, you have to just think that there is even some good in them. You know, I hope Saddam Hussein took his boys into the back yard and played ball with them.”
“Well, maybe, but we have to realize that there is evil in each of our hearts,” I said, “and Heaven is a place of perfection…! It’s true that God will judge all the evil in the world, but the thing is: we aren’t exempt from that! We have evil in our hearts, too. A lot of people think that we can get to Heaven by being good but the truth is that we have to repent and trust the Savior—that’s what the Bible says.”
She thanked me told me she would definitely look over the good person comic.
This lady obviously doesn’t realize that Jesus is the Creator who has always existed. God didn’t “have a kid” – rather He “sent His Son”. And God is merciful and always has been. When Jesus died for us evil people, that shows how merciful God truly is.
Please pray that this bank teller would be convicted of sin and trust in Jesus. She (like many other Americans) likes the Bible, grew up Catholic, has Bible knowledge and, I believe, some fear of God. But what she obviously does not have is an understanding of Christ’s offer of cleansing from sin and guarantee of eternal life for those who come to Him.
